As the world population grows and more importantly as the per capita purchasing power parity increases, the demand for animal protein (milk, meat, and eggs) will steadily and inevitably grow; to avoid inflationary pressures the supply of animal protein products must increase significantly and sustainably with minimal expansion in agricultural land use. Additionally, it has been reported that feed efficiency is the single greatest factor contributing to variation in the carbon footprint, and that improving efficiency of feed conversion can reduce greenhouse gas emissions both via reductions in enteric methane and manure output. Post-partum uterine diseases such as metritis, endometritis, and retained placenta are important for animal welfare reasons, contributing to cow discomfort and elimination from the herd; coupled with profoundly affected reproductive performance, reduced milk yield and treatment costs. Metritis and endometritis are commonly associated with mixed bacterial infection of the uterus, including E. coli, T. pyogenes, and F. necrophorum (Bicalho et al., 2012). A contributory factor increasing susceptibility to uterine diseases is the immunosuppression faced by cows during the periparturient period (Drackley, 1999; Cai et al., 1994; Kimura et al., 1999; Hammon et al., 2006; Galvao et al., 2010). There is an ongoing and unmet need for improved approaches targeted to prophylaxis and therapy of post-partum diseases, as well as for improving reproductive performance and milk production. The present disclosure addresses these and other needs.